Book Review: Are We All Lemmings & Snowflakes? by Holly Bourne

Holly Bourne has been one of my favourite authors for a while now. I have read most of her books and I get so excited when I see a new one has or is coming out. So, when this new book came out, Are we all lemmings and snowflakes?’, I was excited to get my claws into it and it is amazing. Holly Bourne is famous for writing about feminism and mental health issues. And this new book is a great portrayal of a young girl with bipolar disorder.

The way she has portrayed the mental illness in the book is genius. She doesn’t give away too much of her illness to begin with, so it makes you think and wonder what her illness actually is throughout. The main character, Olive who has bipolar, is so likeable as well as dislikable and I guess that is up to the readers perspective. With her illness it makes her come across as a bitch due to her actions even though they come from her being in a manic state or are defence mechanisms in an attempt to protect herself or other people. She’s also quite vulnerable and struggles to comprehend a lot of her emotions, hating on herself a lot and blaming herself for everything that goes wrong, and this is quite sad to read because you’re there like ‘it’s not your fault!’ and eventually she does realise this. Olive’s journey is one of strong emotion, struggles and self acceptance, and the entire thing is just beautifully written.

The storyline of this book got me hooked from the start. Following this young girl’s life through her mental health issues and trying to get herself through it. The idea of this ‘Reset camp’ for mental health patients is where the story breaks out. Not feeling completely happy there or feeling sure on what they actually want from her, she struggles at first to find her place. But soon enough she becomes friends with a group of other young teenagers who are going through similar things and she slowly thinks she finds her place and started to feel ‘normal’.

Altogether, I believe this book is amazing and such a good read, I couldn’t put it down. Holly Bourne writes in a way that makes you feel so many different emotions and feelings towards the characters and the issues. Personally, I think she is one of the greatest writers of this century, challenging herself and readers by writing in a certain way and about certain topics. If I was you I would go buy one of her books as soon as possible, it would not be a regret.